Teradata files intellectual property theft suit against SAP

Cloud-based data and analytics firm Teradata on Tuesday filed a suit against enterprise resource planning giant SAP for stealing trade secrets while developing its product HANA.

The case, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, also names SAP’s former chief technology officer (CTO) Vishal Sikka, who was also the first non co-founder CEO of Infosys.

Teradata has said Germany-based SAP and Teradata entered a joint venture in 2008 with the aim of gaining access to its intellectual property and creating a competing database product.

“Teradata is alleging that SAP has engaged in a decade-long campaign of anti-competitive behavior, to the detriment of the parties' customers and Teradata alike,” Teradata said in a statement on Wednesday.

It further said SAP and Teradata had a joint venture that gave SAP access to Teradata’s intellectual property.

“SAP's purpose for the joint venture was to steal Teradata's trade secrets, developed over the course of four decades, and use them to quickly develop and introduce a competing though inferior product, SAP HANA,” Teradata said.

Sikka is largely believed to be the creator of SAP’s database product HANA. The complaint by Teradata alleges that Sikka was “aware of and supported SAP’s misappropriation of Teradata’s trade secrets during the development of HANA”.

Reuters reported that SAP said has said it was surprised by the Teradata complaint. It may issue a statement once it has reviewed the lawsuit, which seeks an injunction, unspecified damages and other legal relief available under the law.

In a statement, Sikka said denied the allegations.

"Although this lawsuit is not directed at me, I categorically deny the baseless and outrageous allegations made by TeraData that attempt to diminish the hard work, passion, and the irrefutable and fully legitimate achievements by the Hana team, including myself," Sikka said in a statement.

"As with all my endeavors, my work on SAP HANA was carried out with the highest integrity, professionalism and respect for all obligations towards trade secrets and intellectual property," Sikka added.

(With inputs from Reuters and Teradata lawsuit)